The Fiscal Year 2000 budget for the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration as passed last night by the U.S. House of
Representatives will devastate U.S. space leadership, the National
Space Society said today. The budget passed late Thursday cuts $1
billion from the civil space agency's proposed budget for the
fiscal year beginning Oct. 1st.

"It's another example of irresponsible beltway politics that
makes a political football of our children's future in science and
technology," said NSS Executive Director Pat Dasch. "Restoration of
these cuts is essential to maintaining the growth of commercial
space business," Dasch added.

The National Space Society and its 20,000 members worldwide
fought to reverse the action of the House Appropriations Committee
last August, which recommended the cuts the full House approved
Thursday. "We are extremely disappointed that the voices of our
members, the space science community and the professional societies
were ignored," said Dasch. The cuts will cripple NASA's
technological research programs, science missions, and other space
projects that Dasch said were critical investments for future space
goals and as building blocks for the growing U.S. commercial space
community.

Dasch recalled that members of Congress who supported these
cuts had just hailed the recent 30th anniversary of the Apollo era
and the Apollo 11 lunar landing. "Just weeks after celebrating the
"Golden Age" of Apollo, these members of Congress have turned their
backs on any future age of space exploration, or returning
Americans to the Moon or exploring Mars," Dasch said. "We must
ask-where is their vision?"

The next step in the budget approval process calls for the
U.S. Senate to pass its own version of the NASA FY2000 budget. A
House-Senate conference committee will then try to resolve the two
bills if they contain differing amounts. A final version, when
approved by both houses of Congress, would then head to President
Clinton's desk for signing into law. But Dasch said that the
President should veto any bill with such deep cuts to NASA should
it reach the White House in that form.

The National Space Society, celebrating 25 years of space
education and advocacy, is an independent, non-profit space
advocacy organization headquartered in Washington, DC. Its 20,000
members worldwide actively promote the development of a spacefaring
civilization. For additional information on NSS and space
exploration, visit the NSS website at http://www.nss.org or call
202-543-1900.